Summary

Description of the issue

Hi, Since january I use FMP 10 as the developer to get the new script triggering feature and try to work around the highly debated shortcomings of it, My server was still FMS 9. Due to the fact that I upgarded to 10.5.6 and the latest java which FMS 9 admin is not compatible anymore (which is a total shame in itself) I was forced t upgrade to FMP 10, plus I had the secret desire that "improvement in use of multiple core" would do marvels with my quad core Mac Pro 2,66Ghz. During the FMS 9 + FMP 10 clint I was imune to xml import issue people complain about on mac 10.5.6 but not anymore. FMS 10 + FMP 10 client (or at least FMPA client) makes XML import hang ! As my solution relies heavilly on XML imports at least 20 a day, I was forced to re-put a FMP 9 client as my robot (and NO FM Inc folks contrary to what you falsely advert robots are still needed with FMP 10, because you can't launch Applescript from server for instance) But that not the worse, now my 10 users are saying FMP is awfully slow ! and my robots also show that slownes. With FMS 9 only one CPU was use never more than 60 percent (which is bad by the way - who cares about 40% iddle CPU ?), With FMP10 each 4 core are sometimes used, with CPU utilisatio up to 150% but for NOTHING, it's just slower than before.Plus the whole machine (even though it should be abke to go up to 400% cpu utilisation) slows to a crawl. According to Mac OS X monitor's ther's no disk I/O involved so the disk is not the issue. I think FM Inc has put a multicore support in it just for marketing purpose without actually ensuring it was faster than the previous FMP 9 one.My deployment is not heavy 10 eople a most, never more than 5 doing something simultaneously. I think the slownes is either while doing scheduled backups (which I do in 15 minutes frequences since ever, with FMP 6 it was a pain, FMS 9 was great and FMS 10 seems to suck) or while doing schedued imports/scripts frome the robot whil user actuelly use the database, or both phenomenon. Doing an heavy export script (involving many many usntored calc from other related tables) whit only one client, the bot, CPU never passed 30% mark, stupid (not a network / disk I/o issue as no disk IO where registered and no network issue beacause bot was on same machine as server for this test, yes I know, that it's not supported but with FMS 9 it's 4 times faster than if the robot is on a networked client)

Sorry I think I over reacted, I noticed that I had scheduled backups using the integrity check (whicjh I didn't enabled with FMS 9) and since I removeed that integrity check things seem to be fine again.

I'll let you know if I encounter other issues, but for now consider the case as "bogus", except the discovery that enabling integrity check can slow donw things to a crawl

"Unfortunately, this report doesn't have enough information to go on. What activities are being completed on the server? What type of tasks are completed by the users? Are there server side scripts? If so, what are the server side scripts doing? Are there backup scripts? What are the sizes of the files that the customer is working with? Also, this customer stated that he was running backups every 15 minutes and he had changed in FileMaker 10 to use validation. We don't suggest running validation during the day, but only during a time when the server doesn't have user activity. The customer took the whole statement about being slow back after stating he was running validations on the backup. I don't understand why a server restart was required. Are there other applications running on the box? Can you list what the server side scripts are running and what each of the clients are doing?"

Mostly just serving 5 clients, plus some import scripts from time to time, excuted by a robot. Plus some scheduled backups every hours, and every 15 minutes.

No server side scripst unfirtunenately (because though I'd love to, the unbelievable limitations of the FMS 10 server side scripting makes it unasable with 95% of my scripts : non applescript launching, no imports from fp7 tables, the fact that client can't trigger server sides scripting etc.. so to me though I'm looking for it for ages FMS Server scripting doesn'texists as far as I'm concerned).

>If so, what are the server side scripts doing? Most script ran by a a robot are xml imports + replaces

> Are there backup scripts? Yes every hour, and every 15 minutes. My original report problem was certainly due to the fact that I did check the verify backup thingie.

That's the cause of the unbelievabel slowness, especially if at the same time a robot is triggering a script. So I then unchecked the verifying an then it was ok, till the day of my second post.

So, after the weekend I then returned to work and users were complaining in earluy morning about the slowness (that I've thought I did fix by remving backup veryfiying), I found the server pegging processor to the most, with no particular reason. So I did have to reboot it. Since then this is OK.

Each night a robot runs many scripts mostly XML imports and exports, plus some hosted .fp7 imports. Perhaps the slownaess of that morning was due to the remains of a one f thses scripts, even though they al seemed to have worked ok. I thing that may be related to the xml hanging I refer to ij other post. I think that that night perhaps there was some network interuption during ans XML import and that caused the hanging.

Since that second post I've no more issues. But FMS 10 seems more processing angry than FMS 9 while scipts takes the same time to complete

>What are the sizes of the files that the customer is working with? the whole 47 files are totaling 1.6 GB. Main files is 96MB

>Also, this customer stated that he was running backups every 15 minutes and he had changed in FileMaker 10 to use validation. We don't suggest running validation during the day, but only during a time when the server doesn't have user activity. The customer took the whole statement about being slow back after stating he was running validations on the backup.

Yes that explains the first port, I think you should put a strong warning on this whe user activates this.But even after that, I had the case of an extreme slownees even though veryfing was off (but I think as above that's maybe a xml hangong)

> Are there other applications running on the box?

The robot is running on the same box. YES I KNOW, that you don't recommend it, but may server is a quad core, and It worked flwaslesslys with FMS 9 in that setup. And I do this, even though FM Inc fior good reason. Scripts goes at least 2 to 3 times faster if robot is on the same box, I did bench it, thats' because there's no bnetwork latency in that case, and network latenc is what kills Filemaker performance.

2 to 4 time a day and applescript trigered by the FM robots run photoshop scripts

> Can you list what the server side scripts are running and what each of the clients are doing?"

No server side scripts, clients whaere just entering data, sorting

To sum up :

YES firts reported extreme slownees was dues to veryfing backups.

After that, I did had ONE case of teh server apparently idle with no clients connected running at 150%200% CPU, that neeeded a restart. Since then I'm ok. I think that case may be related to the XML hanging I encounter on the mac when there's network interuption.

and to me it appears that FM 10 is much more procesor hungry than FMS9 with no speed gain.